With the proliferation of email services in recent years, email subscribers are finding it increasingly desirable to be able to receive their email while they are away from their home or office computers.
Current methods of achieving remote email access include logging onto a computer from a remote location, or using a laptop or other portable computer with a cellular modem. Logging onto a computer requires accessibility and attention to such a computer, which may not be practical when in an automobile or in transit, for example. Portable computers and cellular modems are expensive, and users often have to pay costly per-minute connection fees for such cellular communications.
Also, with current access methods, if a user is anxiously awaiting a particular email, the user must either repetitively re-connect to his Internet Service Provider (ISP) to check for new email, or alternatively, must maintain an open connection until the particular email arrives. These approaches are impractical for many users, since they are inconvenient, time-consuming and/or expensive, especially where the connection is via a cellular modem.
Pagers have been used for remote receipt of messages, and existing use of pager technology has been extended to remotely display email. Such email is sent by an email server directly to a paging service and ultimately to a pager for display thereon. However, this service is available only if the particular ISP to whom the user subscribes offers a paging service, and only email received for the user at such an ISP is made available remotely to the user. This is limiting, as email can now be received at some telephones, for example, by ADSI signalling and some users have more than one email account on different servers. Thus, some users may have multiple sources of email. It would be desirable, therefore, to be able to remotely receive email received from any source or service, not just one particular ISP.
Taking another approach, the technology exists to receive messages in a telephone call and to forward such messages to a remote pager. One such system is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,942,598 to Davis. This system does not readily lend itself to forwarding of email, however, for the same reasons as stated above, as email may come from more than one source. Furthermore, mere forwarding of an email may be undesirable, especially when the email is large. Thus, with the vast amount of information which can be received in an email, it would be desirable to select a particular portion of an email, for example, to be received and displayed remotely.
Also, similar to the problems discussed above, to avoid the necessity of subscribing to a particular ISP which forwards email to a telephone or pager, there is a need for a subscriber equipment telephony device which actively retrieves email or portions thereof from any ISP, and if desired, forwards such messages to a remote device.
Furthermore, it would be desirable to place at the control of the user the capability of determining when and where an email or portion thereof is to be forwarded for remote notification.